Oh, it is, is it? There was Colene's angry thought.
To be used and thrown away, he thought back, trying to mollify her. But for some reason she seemed unmollified.
Then he had a notion. I have not tried my magic here, he thought to Colene. Give me tokens of your essence.
What? It was incredulity.
I can be close to you, when apart, if you give me of your solid, liquid, and gaseous essence, he clarified.
The hell I will!
She was misunderstanding. A hair of your head. A drop of your saliva. The touch of your breath.
She considered. Then, her curiosity overriding her anger, she quietly plucked a hair from her head, lifted a cloth napkin to her lips, spat into it, and then breathed on it. She wadded it up and passed it to him under the table.
Thank you, Colene. If my magic works here, this will give me great power over you.
She sent him a dark glance. Yet again he seemed to have angered her. But he had the things he needed. This could be very important. He stuffed the napkin into the band of his underwear, and proceeded as if nothing had happened.
Finally the meal ended, and servants guided them back to their chambers. Now the real adventure was about to begin. He wondered what Colene had in mind, since he understood that the male despots could use their magic to incapacitate a woman and make her helpless.
His chamber had a large bed with several covers ranging from a voluminous quilt to a square hardly larger than a towel, and a similar assortment of pillows ranging from huge to tiny. These folk liked freedom of choice! He used the sanitary facilities, stripped, and was in the act of considering pillows when he heard a quiet knock. He got up and went to answer it, holding a medium-sized pillow in front of him.
Sure enough, Queen Glomerula was making her appearance at his door. She was in a sheer white tunic, whose purpose was obviously enhancement rather than concealment, and white veil, evidently intended to indicate anonymity. An officially surreptitious visit.
He stepped back, and she stepped in. She closed the door. Then her cloak and veil faded away, leaving her naked. They had been illusion, and she wore nothing beneath. This woman was all business.
Actually, more of her body could be illusion. He judged her to be about forty years old, and it was an unfortunate fact that few women were outstanding in body at that age, mainly because they didn't seem to care to work at it. Did her illusion extend to touch as well as sight? If so, did it matter? What a man perceived was what he got, generally.
In this case it was quite a perception. In Darius' world, women wore thick diapers around their posteriors, under their skirts, whose purpose was to mask the feminine contours. Breasts were normally concealed by loose blouses over sturdy halters. Only married women or mistresses, in the privacy of their homes, allowed themselves to be seen in less. The sight of such body parts was highly suggestive to men, and care was normally taken to prevent accidental exposure. He had had a problem with Colene, who tended to wear clothing that made her feminine contours too evident. She was young, but that did not detract from her physical appeal. Now they were promised to each other, so her apparel could be tolerated; still, he didn't like it when other men saw her dressed that way. Perhaps that aspect of their relationship was even; she didn't like the way he reacted to other women.
So the queen's exposure had an immediate effect on him, and he desired her body despite his resolve. Fortunately he had the discipline of his profession. He would let her believe that he was captivated by her aspect, but in the end it would come to nothing.
He tossed aside the pillow and stepped toward her—and suddenly she was across the room. Magic, of course—except that he understood that the women here did not have true magic, only illusion. So what was going on?
Maybe the horse knew. Seqiro might not be able to get into her mind, but he surely knew where it was.
It is illusion, Seqiro confirmed. She has made an image in one place, and covered her actual body with the image of an empty spot in the room.
An illusion of nothing! That was an aspect he had not anticipated. So she was challenging him to find her. Surely a despot male's magic could readily cut through such pictures and locate a woman immediately, so she was exploring his magical ability. It was necessary that he demonstrate it, to confirm that he was of the animus and therefore to be respected, along with his women and animal.
Queen Glomerula appeared before him, within reach. "Yes?" she inquired, using one of the few words they had been able to identify.
He did not want to admit that he had no intention of indulging her whim, so he acted. He grabbed for her. And missed; the illusion faded, leaving him embracing air. Her laughter sounded behind him.
But this was not a matter for laughter, for she was testing him. If he could not use his magic to capture her, he would be deemed a theow, and would be killed. In this realm only the men had true magic, and only the despots had strong magic.
Where is she? he asked the horse.
I will mark her place. A glint of light appeared, and then another beside it, at about head height. In fact they were her two eyes, perhaps easiest to fix on because a person's consciousness tied closely in to sight.
Darius strode toward the glints. They floated quickly to one side. He veered and intercepted them. He reached out and caught her body, drawing it into himself. It was after all only sight the magic affected, at least in this case. Perhaps touch as well, not to make an image tangible, but to make her genuine body seem more appealing. It certainly was that; one of his hands had landed, perhaps by her design, on what seemed to be her invisible right breast, and the other on her left buttock. Both were extremely female.
He oriented and put his lips to the place her mouth should be. He found her lips and kissed her—and she kissed him back. Seqiro had enabled him to prevail. He had proved his magic.
But now what should he do with her? He did not intend to indulge in sex with her; Colene was the one he wanted for that, and only when the time was right. Yet it might not be good form to reject the queen. He needed a legitimate distraction.
Colene, he thought. They might be privately estranged, but they had a common purpose here.
I thought you'd never ask, she replied. The knave is about to arrive, and I want you to see what I do to him.
But I need a pretext to ignore the queen.
What, with one hand on her boob and the other on her ass and your tongue in her mouth?
She is not easy to ignore. Please, a pretext!
You've got one: your magic shows you that I am being threatened. Tell the queen you have put a chastity spell on me. Tell her to show you what's going on here.
How can she do that?
Illusion. These folk are good at it—awful good, Seqiro says. You'll see. Make her show you. It'll be a good show.
He cooperated. He paused as if suddenly realizing something, listening. He disengaged his mouth, but not his hands. "Glomerula!" he snapped. "My woman is being approached. Show her chamber."
But the queen did not understand; there were too few common words. He needed a way to get through to her.
He cast about, and saw the pillows on the bed. He bore the queen back authoritatively and plumped her down on the bed. Her body came into view as he did so, marvelously formed and almost glowing; she was ready for the next event. This was obviously both business and pleasure for her.
But instead of proceeding, he took the smallest pillow and squeezed it into a crude approximation of a human torso. He took the smallest cover and ripped it in half. One half he formed into a wraparound skirt for the pillow; the other half he tore into several shreds, which he tied around the waist and neck and attached in lieu of arms and legs. It was not by any means a great figurine, but he thought it would do for his purpose.
He held it up. "Colene," he told the queen. "Show."
The queen's face brightened with understanding. She knew what was to happen in Colene's chamber. She gestured to the far wall, not only
to do magic but to indicate where to look.
Darius looked. The wall became seemingly transparent, and beyond it was Colene's chamber, showing her bed. Colene sat on it in her underclothing, brushing out her hair. He realized that this was illusion, for the girl's chamber was nowhere near his own, but that it reflected reality. Colene was right: these folk had impressive powers of imagery. The picture was so realistic that he reacted to the undiapered body. He hoped Glomerula would believe that it was the queen's body that continued to excite him.
Glomerula seemed surprised about something, but neither he nor the horse could fathom what at the moment. Could it be that some detail of the illusion she was Grafting did not match her expectation? That suggested that it was a true picture, not a pure invention.
It's me, Colene's thought confirmed. There's precious little real privacy in this castle. The king's making an illusion picture of his own, Seqiro says, and he's watching what you're doing with the queen. I think he gets his jollies more from watching her with other men than with doing it with her himself.
Then I'll give him something to see, Darius thought. He sat beside the queen, extended his left arm to draw her in beside him, and fondled her right breast with his right hand. It felt like as good a breast as the left; it had appropriate heft and contour. He tried to imagine that it was Colene's breast, but it didn't work, because Colene had less mass in that region. Too bad he was not in a position to explore the matter more thoroughly.
And I'll give you something to see, Colene thought viciously. He kept running afoul of her sensitivities, thoughtlessly.
But he had more to do. "Colene is mine," he told the queen. "My magic secures her chastity." He used the doll to indicate the forbidden area. "No other man—" He thrust with a finger to illustrate the forbidden action.
That turned out to be clear enough. Glomerula smiled. She gestured again toward the wall: wait and see. The challenge was on, and the queen seemed as satisfied with that as with her own involvement.
Then he remembered the other thing he wanted to check: his emotional magic. This was the ideal situation to test it, because he had to be quite close to a woman to draw out her joy. As it happened, he was close to the queen.
The door to Colene's room opened and Knave Naylor stepped in. Colene looked up, saw him, and her mouth opened in a soundless scream. This illusion couldn't handle sound.
The knave threw off his cloak and approached her, naked. There was no subtlety: if she didn't find a way to stop him, he would ravish her immediately. That was the point: only a woman of the ruling class of the anima could have any power against a man of the animus, and if she turned out to be such a woman, she would be deemed an enemy, and the despots would do their best to kill her immediately. So her choice was between rape and death, as the knave saw it. Rather, Darius' choice was to watch or act; he wasn't sure the anima could work here, on an animus world. Still, he wasn't sure what to do, because he had no certainty that his magic worked here.
But these folk had not encountered the like of Colene. Darius smiled, giving the queen's breast a squeeze to make her think that was the cause of his emotion. The queen seemed to be enjoying both the show and the handling.
Darius drew her as close as possible, squeezing her breast as if turned on by it and/or the scene they watched. But his intent would have horrified her had she fathomed it. He exerted his magic and drew on her emotional vitality.
Nothing happened. His magic did not operate in this reality, there was no doubt now. That was disappointing, but perhaps not surprising. At least he had not had to alert the queen to what he had attempted. She had been saved by the underlying laws of her universe.
He relaxed, but did not let go of her breast, lest she become suspicious. Oh, sure, Colene thought witheringly. However, Colene now had a situation of her own to attend to, and couldn't continue to focus on him.
Naylor came to the bed. Colene screamed again and started to get off it. But Naylor made a negligent gesture, and abruptly the girl's feet left the floor. She was floating, her moving legs having no purchase. Then she was borne to the bed, to land on her back, her feet still kicking.
The knave stared at her in much the way Hobard had. Darius followed the specific direction of his gaze, and finally understood: it was her underclothing. It was as if the man had not seen this before. Could it be that these folk did not wear underclothing? That would explain Hobard's interest, and the queen's too. The queen had not come to him naked under her cloak of illusion merely to seduce him; she never wore such things anyway. That made sense at last.
Naylor shook off his surprise and concentrated. Colene's undergarments seemed to catch fire. Flame and smoke puffed around her body, and dissipated, leaving no burns. Now she was naked. There was no doubt about the power of the man's magic; he was controlling her body against her will without touching her.
The knave gestured again. Colene's legs still moved, but now they seemed to be constrained. They spread, her knees lifting, the feet kicking in a futile pattern, well apart. This man seemed to be experienced in this act, for even magic required expertise, and it was just as if invisible hands were placing her legs safely out of the way.
Glomerula's face turned to him. She was smiling. She was waiting to see how he was going to handle this assault on his woman. To see whether he could handle it.
Darius smiled back at her. "You will see, skeptic," he said. "I do not allow trespassing." But he wished Colene would get on with her plan, because he had no idea what it might be, and it was certainly time for it.
Naylor put a knee on the bed, orienting for his business. Now, Seqiro! Colene's thought came, so strong that it was as if she had shouted in Darius' face.
The man's face froze. His mouth dropped open. It was as if he saw something horrible, yet there was nothing.
Queen Glomerula's body tensed. She did not understand what was happening. Neither did Darius. What? he thought to Colene.
Show him, Seqiro.
Then it was as if Darius were looking through Naylor's eyes. Suddenly he understood.
From the region between Colene's legs a viscous mass was rising. It flexed, and part of it separated from the main mass. It was the head of a large snake! A cobra, with spreading hood and elongating fangs from which glistening poison dripped.
The serpent's eyes fastened on Naylor's genitals. The head moved back, then struck forward.
Naylor screamed and threw himself off the bed, grabbing at his crotch.
Queen Glomerula stared. She did not see the snake, which was an illusion projected only to Naylor's mind. She saw the man reacting to nothing more than the sight of a helpless girl's spread thighs. What was the matter with the man?
Darius took advantage of her distraction to do some more work on his pillow figurine. He rolled up more cloth to form fuller arms and legs, and used a brown fragment to represent hair on the head. It was coming to look more like Colene.
He reached across to where he had set the bundled towel with Colene's essences. He wrapped the single hair in place around the figurine's head, and pressed the damp region where her saliva was to the figure's body until some dampness soaked across. Then he pressed the napkin to the face of the figure and breathed into it, pushing her breath through with the force of his breath. The queen, fascinated by the scene in Colene's room, had not even noticed that he was no longer fondling her breast.
Colene, freed of the spell of immobility, got up and pursued the man. Now she looked like an even larger serpent, one whose gaping jaws could bite great chunks out of the flesh of a man. But to the queen, she looked like an ordinary bare girl—
Why did such illusion work against a man who was surely well experienced with all kinds of magic? Darius realized that it was because it was illusion infused with belief; the horse was projecting the certainty that this was real, and Naylor had no way to resist. Seqiro must have been concentrating on penetrating the man's mind, so as to be able to do this.
Naylor fled. He charged d
own the hall, heedless of his nakedness. "Anima! Anima!" he cried.
The picture faded as the queen lost her concentration: "There was no anima!" she said, her thought plain despite her unfamiliar words.
It was tune to try his magic. If it worked, Darius would have proved that he was of the animus. If it didn't, he would let his supposed chastity spell make the point.
He concentrated on the figurine. "You are Colene," he whispered to it.
He felt a tingle. The magic was working!
Now at last the queen was paying attention to him. She looked with surprise at the figurine.
"Watch," Darius said. He leaned down to draw a square in the slight dust on the floor before the bed. "You are there, Colene," he said to the figurine, setting it down inside the square. "In your chamber, having routed the rapist." Then, through Seqiro, he thought: Be prepared, Colene; I am about to conjure you with my magic.
Fat chance! she thought back.
He lifted the figurine and set it carefully in his lap. "Now you are here."
Suddenly Colene was sitting in his lap. She was naked and he was naked, but for once neither paid much attention. "You did it!" she exclaimed, amazed. Then she leaned over and vomited on the floor.
"Uh, conjurations can disturb a person's equilibrium, resulting in a nervous stomach," he said as he deactivated the icon with a negative thought. It was not safe to leave them activated, because then any careless treatment of the figurine affected the subject.
"Now he tells me!" she gasped. Then she sat up straight, twisted, and kissed him hard on the mouth.
Queen Glomerula, still beside him, laughed.
Colene became aware of her. "Shut up, bitch-cow, or I'll kiss you too," she snapped. "Even if it makes me upchuck again."